Russia’s ghost fleet: Moscow’s new oil routes

An environmental disaster was narrowly averted on May 1, off the coast of Malaysia. On that day, the Pablo, an old tanker with a rusty hull capable of storing up to 700,000 barrels of oil, was sailing on calm seas just a few nautical miles from the small paradise island of Pulau Tinggi when its 232-meter-long, 42-meter-wide steel carcass was violently shaken by an explosion. “When I opened my cabin door, I saw smoke everywhere,” said the ship’s captain, Oleksandr Lepyoshkin, a few days later. “It looked like war, there were explosions everywhere and there was thick smoke suffocating us.” Part of the hull was blown away by the explosion. Luckily, it was empty: The tanker had just unloaded its cargo in China. For three long days, the Malaysian coastguard circled helplessly around the smoking wreck, not daring to approach for fear of further explosions. Of the 28 crew members, two Indians and one Ukrainian were not found.